A is important if you’re going to be a professional

Like accounting, doctoring (immensely important!), engineering- any job, IMHO that involves a very high degree of precision, technical know-how, and a logical mind. However, does everyone have to be pressured to score As, even if they don’t want to?

Back? Good. Primary and Secondary Education in Malaysia has been on a slide for a long time, regardless of what the government says. The emphasis and switch on scoring for Academics and forgetting everything else in the race for the moolah (or so some parents tell their children) has been nothing but detrimental to our society.

I told this to my mom (about Tiara’s article, I mean), who then proceeded to say that “I don’t force you to get all As,” which started my eyeroll (mom has got incredibly good selective memory coupled with excellent “Believe me” faces) and then said that this was due to the fact that people are having less children, sometimes only one in the family, so they compare their kids to other people’s kids to give themselves a pat on the back for raising fine children. This would be preposterous and funny if it weren’t for the fact that this happened to me.

So I made myself promise that if I had kids, I’d rather her/him (yes, I’ll be selfish and admit I want a daughter) I’d make her get A for being a kind person. I’d rather give her a treat for helping an elderly person cross the road than for a perfect test paper (On a side note, I once nearly got a perfect test paper in Std. 4). I would rather my daughter know right from wrong than for her to recite the values to me without understanding.

Of course, she’s got a right in return, to expect her mother to listen to her, to support her dreams no matter how ridiculous, to let her take and drop her extra classes (such as ballet and the like), to go for self-defence and swimming lessons (now I think that one I’ll make her go, just to be safe) and to be respected as an individual.

*Looks back on post*

Oh kay… sorry for disgressing, but please keep those links in mind. Or at least… READ THEM. ^_^

Even in professional courses, As don’t matter all that much. One of my friends is in medical school and she didn’t get straight As – yet she’s doing well. And just because you’re an all A-scorer doesn’t mean you’d actually be any good at your professional job – there are doctors who have absolutely no people skills (malpractice suits!), accountants who fudge numbers, engineers who skimp on materials to “save costs”…so many factors make up a good professional, not jut As.